• Blind Men and Elephant 盲人と象、達磨 (above);  Ichikawa Ebizō V 五代目市川海老蔵 as Daruma (below)  from the series <i>Meiga rokumai byobu</i>  (Screen with the six branches of famous painting - 名画六枚屏風) - one panel of a triptych
Blind Men and Elephant 盲人と象、達磨 (above);  Ichikawa Ebizō V 五代目市川海老蔵 as Daruma (below)  from the series <i>Meiga rokumai byobu</i>  (Screen with the six branches of famous painting - 名画六枚屏風) - one panel of a triptych
Blind Men and Elephant 盲人と象、達磨 (above);  Ichikawa Ebizō V 五代目市川海老蔵 as Daruma (below)  from the series <i>Meiga rokumai byobu</i>  (Screen with the six branches of famous painting - 名画六枚屏風) - one panel of a triptych
Blind Men and Elephant 盲人と象、達磨 (above);  Ichikawa Ebizō V 五代目市川海老蔵 as Daruma (below)  from the series <i>Meiga rokumai byobu</i>  (Screen with the six branches of famous painting - 名画六枚屏風) - one panel of a triptych

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 01/01/1797 – 04/14/1861)

Blind Men and Elephant 盲人と象、達磨 (above); Ichikawa Ebizō V 五代目市川海老蔵 as Daruma (below) from the series Meiga rokumai byobu (Screen with the six branches of famous painting - 名画六枚屏風) - one panel of a triptych

Print


1847 – 1852
9.75" x 14.5" Japanese woodblock pirnt
Signature: Ichi Kuniyoshi (above), Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi (below)
Censors' seals: Mera, Murata 米良, 村田
Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō (seen only on right-hand panel)
Carver seal: Horikō Fusajirō (on right-hand panel only)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum - all three panels
Bibliothèque nationale de France - #24 in an album Each panel has different signatures. The one with the title cartouche also has the publisher's seal: Ibaya Senzaburō. The curatorial files at the British Museum say: "The kabuki actors Ichikawa Danjuro VIII and Bando Shuka (right), Ichikawa Danjuro VII (centre), and Sawamura Sojuro V, Ichihawa Kuzo, and Onoe Baiko (left)."

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Illustrated in black and white in 'The blind as metaphorical subjects in the pictorial arts of Japan' by Helmut Wilmes in Andon 71, May, 2002, fig. 4, p. 34.
Ichikawa Ebizō V (五代目市川海老蔵: 11/1797 to 10/1800 and 3/1832 to 3/1859) (actor)
Ibaya Senzaburō (伊場屋仙三郎) (author)